Dan Browne

Dan Browne, the West Point graduate who ran the 10,000 and the marathon for the U.S. at the 2004 Athens Olympics, will run the Papa John's Ten-Miler in Louisville, a USA 10-Mile Championship, on April 15

Dan Browne, the West Point graduate who ran the 10,000 and the marathon for the U.S. at the 2004 Athens Olympics, will run the Papa John's Ten-Miler in Louisville, a USA 10-Mile Championship, on April 15 as he returns from a long recovery after two knee operations and an emergency appendectomy. Browne won the 2005 USA Half-Marathon Championship in Houston in January of that year in 1:03:56 but was sidetracked by his ailments after that. He did marry Cristan Moore in Texas on July 9. Browne won the 2002 Twin Cities Marathon in 2:11:35 in his debut at 26.2 miles. Browne was third in the 10,000 and third in the marathon at Olympic Trials in 2004. In Athens, he was 12th in the 10,000 and 65th in the marathon. Browne's USA road race titles have included the ten-mile in 2004, the 25K in 2003, and the 20k in 2002. In 1998 alone, he won U.S. titles in 4k cross country, for 3000 meters indoors, for 10,000 meters in outdoor track, and for 5K and 10K on the roads. Browne is now an Oregon resident and is coached by Alberto Salazar.

Runner's World Daily: So you're up in Park City, Utah for awhile now?Dan Browne: Yeah, I'm up here with Alberto and the group. We're just doing some altitude training.

RWD: Does the altitude training for shorter spells like that –it will be less than two weeks–really pay off?DB: It's hard to say sometimes. Everyone's different. I will have been here for nine days total (before going to Papa John's). That is a bare minimum amount of time to get in an altitude response. But you do get a response, because the response happens in the first 72 hours, I would say. Where we stay is really good, because it's about 8000 feet, and we do our workouts at about 4000. It's just the beginning of the season, and it's just what I kind of wanted to do. I'm just trying to get back to training hard and I'm finally starting to do 100-mile weeks again. So that's exciting. I'm just trying to build strength and get strong for later on in the season, really trying to set some PRs and everything.

RWD: So your workouts at Park City are actually at about 4000 feet?DB: Yeah, I think Sugar House, which is a park that we run at, is about 4400 feet elevation, so it's pretty good. It can be challenging for the tempo runs. It's good. I'm assuming we'll come back in May or June. It's a really comfortable place and a nice training location.

RWD: You'd had this incredibly long litany of post-Olympic injuries and operations, but you did have some hopes of getting ready for Twin Cities last fall. What happened to those hopes?DB: The worst things I'd ever had up until these surgeries were stress fractures, and stress fractures are basically guaranteed to be over in about eight weeks, and then you just get on with your training. After knee surgery, there's this whole different process of rehabbing and really being conscientious about restrengthening and getting your muscles back to where they need to be. I really felt like I lost some muscle mass through the resting period that I had to take. Restrengthening those muscles to be able to withstand the training was definitely a part of the process. Maybe, to some extent, I underestimated the amount of rebuilding phase that I would need. When you try and do 100-mile weeks with muscles that have atrophied and aren't equipped to be able to handle that, there's going to be an up-and-down period. That, to a large extent, is the main reason I didn't do Twin Cities. As much as I wanted it mentally and emotionally, the legs just weren't able to withstand the training.

Overall, I think it was a smart decision to pull back. I really want to put this period behind me and just hopefully have the rest of my career and be smart about taking care of my body and doing the right things so that I can have a good four or five-year cycle where I'm...training hard and trying to run faster.

RWD: What things did you do specifically to restore that lost muscle mass? Did you do weight exercises? Did you do more uphill work?DB: I did a lot of strength training, core training, in the gym. I worked pretty extensively on active release, because there's a process where as you're trying to strengthen the quads, they tend to become very tight. Working through to loosen up the range of the rectus femoris muscle and along the IT line is a big portion of it. So not only is there a component of strengthening, but there's also trying to get that pliability and flexibility within there. That's been the last component that's really helped me to begin training at a high level again. Every now and then, I'll get different kinds of tightness, but overall, the knees are solid. I'm excited about that, because I have been working out hard and trying to hang onto (Adam) Goucher in workouts–which is no small task. It's been fun. We had a great group. I'm really excited about getting to work with Adam some more this year. I think we're really going to push each other.

RWD: When you get to the starting line in USA Championships, if you're in the same event, Goucher is someone you want to beat. But it must be exciting for you to see the progress he's made and the year he's had already.DB: Oh yeah. He's had a really good year. It was frustrating for me, because in January '05, he was starting to come into his stride training, and that was right at the same point I got injured. But at the same time, I'm really happy that he's had a great year and been relatively injury-free. Things have been going well. It's going to exciting. I think leaning into '08, we're going to really help each other. He's going to help me with my speed a little bit, and hopefully I can help a little bit with strength, and where we meet, it'll just come together.

RWD: Is Papa John's going to be your first race since all the operations? Did you do any small races early this year?DB: I did a race a couple of weekends ago at the Oregon Preview. I guess I could call it an icebreaker. When you haven't raced in 14 months, when you slip on the spikes again, it's a little nerve-wracking but exciting. It's been a long time coming, basically. I've been wanting to race for three or four months now, but Alberto's been smart in holding me back. It was the right race. It was just a very controlled 3K on the track. Then we did a workout afterward. It ended up being a good day of work. I did 8:13 for the 3K. Nothing too blazing out there, but once again, it felt controlled.

RWD: Usually, in your years as a runner, you're building on what you've done before and you know you can get through the workouts just fine. But to be in this position, after all your ailments, where you're doing the same stuff in practice and you're not getting the same results and you're not feeling good about it, that's probably something that mentally, you haven't felt since your very early days as a runner. How does it feel to cope with that?DB: You hit the nail on the head. That was the hardest part, to a large extent, of all this, where I didn't have this mountain of strength behind me. In '05, I ran for two or three months, and the rest of the time, I was just trying to figure it out. It was a rollercoaster. I was either on the operating table or recovering or getting ready to go on it again, or I was getting married. Once my legs and knees, particularly, started to feel more normal on a regular basis, Alberto helped me recognize that early on, you're not going to always have this gradual ascension to having great workouts. There are going to be good workouts and there are ones where you're going to be a little sore, a little tired. You're just going to have to recognize it's not going to be as smooth as a traditional buildup would be because you've had to take such an extended break. I've been keeping long term focus in mind, trying to recognize that really, 2008 is the year to make it happen. If I can stay healthy from this point on, I feel very confident that I'll get back to everything I've done previous–and hopefully, with the knowledge that I have now that what I do is a gift, and just make the most of it. You've got a certain amount of time and you've got to do the right thing to make it happen.

RWD: It's looking far ahead, but do you think you might try and qualify in two Olympic events, the 10,000 and the marathon, like you did in 2004?DB: It depends. They haven't announced where (or when) the marathon trials are yet, and that to a large extent is the main determining factor, if there's enough of a window (between the marathon and track trials). I'm going to be a lot more conscientious about choosing my marathons and making sure that I'm not putting undue pressure on my legs. It's funny. I read an article in the Register(Eugene Register-Guard), talking about a "veteran" group of runners, and I said to myself 'from this point forward, I'm going to be the veteran.' I just thought that was kind of funny, because I always used to consider myself the young guy. But I'm kind of moving along, so I need to continue to be wise about this, basically. Looking at the 10K and the marathon, there are plenty of people who have run fantastically in their early 30s and even ?into their mid-30s.

RWD: When you talk about trying to set PRs this spring, we assume you're talking about the 5000 and 10,000.DB: Yeah, this summer, I would say, more likely. By USAs, I hope to be in pretty good shape and then head overseas and then really start hammering out some great times. Not being too greedy, maybe about three or four races, but really making those races count.

RWD: It's hard to that point to find too many 10,000s.DB: It is. Brussels is kind of the one to shoot for. Alberto and I still have to discuss the racing plan, but I would like to run a PR at Brussels. I think that would be a fantastic way to wrap up the track season.

RWD: You're a happily married guy now. When you met Cristan, she wasn't someone who knew a lot about the running life. How's she adjusting to the being the wife of a guy with a runner's schedule?DB: She's been really supportive. It's been great. She's been there to support me the whole way. We met right after the 2004 Olympics, so I had about three months of racing and then it was boom, injury cycle. I tell you, if she can stick with me through this period, we're going to have some fun times ahead–because to a large extent, she hasn't seen my lifestyle of traveling to races, getting to go to Europe and getting to come to all these other places. She's starting to see that we're going to actually be able to go out there and travel and see the world, and I'm really excited to go out there and show her some of the stuff. I'll be the best travel guide I can.

RWD: We've noticed you're one of the runners who, when traveling to other cities, actually avails himself of what's there, what's going on, and doesn't just hang around the hotel or coffee shop all day.DB: That's exactly right. It's all about the journey. If you skip enjoying the journey and only focus on the race, you can miss a lot. That's definitely just a mantra I have in life, in terms of really enjoying the ride. At the same time, you have to know your limits. You have to be wise about it. I wouldn't consider myself one to go out drinking the night before a race or something. But going to visit a museum or something the day before or something like that, as long as it's kept to a minimum, you're good to go. We're really blessed to be able to get the opportunity to travel and to see things. Make the most of it.